Description

Fazenda Santa Lucia is located in Carmo de Minas, Minas Gerais. They farm much more than coffee, but have set aside roughly 80 hectares for coffee production. The folks at the farm put a lot of effort into the separation of lots and varietals, including individual testing onsite. This particular lot is entirely yellow bourbon, and we were able to construct this lot from several smaller lot separations. Elevation at the farm is in the range of 1000 - 1250 meters. They manually harvest - a rarity in Brazil these days - and the coffee is then washed (pulp-natural) using recycled water, which is recycled yet again and used for other farming. After washing, the parchment is machine dried and rested for about a month before transport. Santa Lucia is part of a much larger farm group in Carmo who invest quite a bit into infrastructure at the farm level as well as in the community - schools, medical, and utilities.

The dry grounds have a smell of cinnamon-and-sugar candied nuts, red raisin, and a green tea note. There is a slight savory aspect too, like miso paste, that also shows up in the wet grounds. The crust billows a cream and caramel smell in the steam, like caramel sundae, along with an unexpected cola/spice accent providing an herbal sweetness in aroma. City+ roasts strike a nice balance between unrefined sugar sweetness and nut/grain notes. Pour over brews have a brown sugar flavor offset by a note of roasted almond. At Full City this coffee has viscous body and a thick cacao bar flavor. Light fruit flavors come to fore as the cup cools, but remain well integrated in the overall profile. Santa Lucia finishes long, and shifts toward powdered cocoa and macadamia in the long finish. I prefer brewed coffee in the City+/Full City roast range and should also please those who prefer 2nd snaps. The darker range works great as single-origin espresso too, or as a blend base.